12 



THE HOUSE FLY 



all kinds of unmentionable filth, it settles upon it and 

 greedily feeds. If it should be a female desirous of laying 

 a batch of eggs, she burrows into the horrible microbe-laden 

 mass, and after carefully depositing her precious eggs, she, 

 with others of her kind, wing their way to the nearest dwell- 



F.lnt 



fi.lnt 



Rect. 



FIG. 6 

 A DIAGRAMMATIC FIGURE OF THE HOUSE FLY, showing the 



. _ proboscis or sucker ; the large crop from which food is re- 

 gurgitated ; the true stomach, and the intestines. Ph., 

 Pharynx. Oes., Oesophagus or Gullet. P. Ven., Proventri- 

 culus. Ven., Stomach. F. Int., Front Intestine. H. Int., 

 Hind Intestine. Cr., Crop. Rect., Rectum. The digestive 

 juices of the fly are too weak to kill disease microbes, so they 

 pass through the fly alive, or are regurgitated from the crop. 



(From National Geographic Magazine, Washington, D.C. 

 Copyright 1913, by special permission.) 



ing-house to seek shelter from the wind and rain, and to 

 sample the foodstuffs of the dweller of that house. A single 

 House Fly is capable of carrying many millions of the mi- 

 crobes of any disease upon it, without inconvenience. If 

 the filth on which the fly has been feeding, or in which it 

 has laid its eggs, is infected with disease germs, as it in- 



